GDP target demonstrates nation's resilience

At the annual two sessions meetings of the nation's top legislative and political advisory bodies over the past week, China declared a GDP growth target for this year of around 5.5 percent.

Although Western media seized on the GDP target as being "the lowest in decades", the goal was set amid a wide range of global challenges that, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, create uncertainty for the global economy.

In 2021, China had recovered substantially and attained GDP growth of 8.1 percent, prompting national planners and economists to forecast this year's lower goal as growth returns to its normal trajectory.

However, the GDP target for this year is a sign of strength, as opposed to weakness, and demonstrates the resilience of China and its ability to confront headwinds and continue national development unabated.

The Chinese economy is in a significantly better position than its counterparts in the West due to many reasons.

First, China achieved a full-scale economic recovery from the pandemic and ensured stability without having to resort to extreme scale stimulus, as was seen in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

While these economies invested trillions in order to kick-start growth and consumption, China adopted a more conservative approach and still sustained its growth momentum throughout 2020 and 2021.

This allows China to preserve its monetary tools for long-term gain at a time when Western economies face high levels of inflation due to their loose stimulus policies. While these economies will be forced to raise interest rates to tackle this situation, China faces no such scenario.

Given this, the decision to opt for a 5.5 percent GDP growth rate this year is a highly realistic goal, and only slightly below China's pre-pandemic trajectory, and seeks to achieve growth despite the prevailing challenges.

As Western economies are peaking their COVID-recovery trajectories and adopting tighter monetary policies, it is natural and logical that growth rates all around will be lower.

However, there are now more headwinds in the mix. The situation in Ukraine has brought about surging energy, commodity and agricultural prices due to a forceful narrowing of the market, all of which will significantly dampen global growth further.

In the case of Europe, growth will be adversely affected by the crisis. This will pose problems for China's imports and exports alike.

However, China continues to be in a sturdy position to deal with this situation. The nation is increasingly seen as a stable and safe-haven market for investors, leading to an accelerated flow of inbound capital.

The Chinese renminbi surged to a 14-year high against the US dollar in recent days, with the exchange rate peaking at 6.31. This will improve China's import prospects against inflation and make the country an important driver of global growth for the year.

This situation is similar to that of 2020, and global markets are extremely turbulent now due to a chronic lack of certainty and security.

China's domestic policies, geared toward attaining domestic and economic stability, thus act as an important bulwark for many, again making the 5.5 percent GDP target an optimistic one.

Given this situation, such a goal demonstrates that China has the capacity to steer its economy through an increasingly uncertain global environment and continue to make progress.

It is finally worth nothing that China's growth targets tend to be conservative, with the nation planning for worst-case scenarios, not best-case ones.

In 2021, the target set by the government was only 6 percent, assuming in advance that the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors would continue to pose global economic disruptions, yet the result was 8.1 percent GDP growth.

Hence, despite Western media pessimism, this year's GDP target should not be interpreted as a setback for China's growth trajectory.

In reality, China continues to offer growth prospects that are above those of most of the world. It shows that China's socialist market economy continues to be a highly well-organized, scientific and resilient system.

The author is a British political and international relations analyst. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.